A Game-Changing Idea

This year, the Best in American Living Awards® added a new Game Changer category to celebrate ideas that showcase innovation. Entry requirements were left broad, hoping to cast a wide net that would draw in a variety of applicants and ideas.

Game Changer entries must enhance the resident experience and have the ability to significantly change home and community design over the next five years. Individual projects and products were eligible this year, including home design concepts, new types of site development, innovations in products, and interior design.

Applicants did not disappoint, submitting a wide array of projects from apps to floor plans to design details. Individually and collectively, the entries showed that the future of housing is in good hands. Notably, one entry emerged as a Platinum winner, the highest of the Best in American Living award levels. The first-ever recipient of the Game Changer award is Centriq, the Homeowner’s Digital Guide.

As a leading real estate agent noted, “In a couple of years, every home that sells will come with Centriq.”

“When someone buys a home, they won’t just get the keys, a stack of manuals, and paperwork,” said Shubber Ali, chief executive officer for Centriq, the Homeowner’s Digital Guide. Ali founded Centriq with James Sheppard. “They will get all of the information they need to ‘know’ their home in one digital interactive guide at their fingertips.”

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What is Centriq?

Centriq is an organized collection of home information that can be transferred between all parties involved in the home’s life cycle. Available as an app in the Apple Store and coming soon to the Google store, Centriq is a digital library of a home’s user manuals; receipts, photos and descriptions for everything from light bulbs to water filters; paint color references; appliance information, and more.

Centriq’s inventory can be divided into two main categories: the knowledge of the home owner (or initial user of the app) and expert knowledge. Home owner knowledge includes information such as service provider contact information, Wi-Fi logins and photos of warranties. Notes can be especially handy when it comes time to sell the home, as the new owner will receive important maintenance dates and contacts, such as the last time the water filter was changed or the name of the electrician and the dates of service to the home.

The expert knowledge database, populated by manufacturers and home maintenance professionals, is full of videos, owner manuals (which one can highlight or make digital notes on directly in the app), and maintenance schedules and recommendations directly from the manufacturer.

Centriq can also be used to create an inventory for insurance purposes, organized by room. Home owners can take photos and store them directly in the app and have a full list of items in the home in the event of theft or damage.